A link marketing campaign is a great way to get your site’s users into something unique and to attract new customers. For example, you can create a great e-book or publish an infographic or a statistic based on self-collected data. In this article, you will find out what options you have here, how to plan and implement a so-called seeding campaign and what is important when looking for suitable link partners.
Definition of a link marketing campaign
In simple terms, a link marketing campaign is about creating a specific content and then successfully disseminating it. The content may be an infographic or an e-book or the like. It should provide users with useful or entertaining information. Also, they pursue the goal to improve their traffic and keyword rankings on Google.
This is easy and quick, but with a considerable effort. For everything to follow a standardized process, it is important first to clarify a few questions:
How much time can you spend?
- In what context does your media budget move?
- What do you want to implement?
- Can you work the topic well?
- How would you like to present the content?
- How do you find suitable link partners?
These questions will be clarified during a campaign. You should be aware of the media budget beforehand. This will determine whether there is enough funding available to have a representative Forsa survey or possibly collaborate with a well-known influencer.
Step 1: Find the appropriate topic and select a suitable medium
The first step is to be clear about the topic. In a non-judgmental brainstorming round, various ideas find their way to an overview wall. These ideas do not necessarily have anything to do with your website. You can, for example, offer sportswear and outdoor accessories in a webshop, but develop an infographic on waste prevention in everyday life. It is important that it brings the user new information and that it can be worked up interesting. If you keep these two points in mind, it’s secondary to what ideas come from brainstorming.
In the further course the ideas are sorted out according to these points:
- Can the idea be worked on interestingly and in a new way?
- Is the topic new and exciting or has it been dealt with often?
- Are there suitable experts / influencers / appropriate organizations?
Once a topic has been found after the clarification of these questions, the idea is put into action and transformed into a suitable medium. Here are several options available to you:
- If a very extensive topic has emerged during brainstorming, an e-book is an ideal solution to accommodate everything. Texts, graphics, photos, surveys, statistics, questionnaires and much more can be recorded, evaluated and processed.
- If, on the other hand, you prefer to present a fact clearly, an infographic is preferable. This is created from the relevant data and processed graphically. Thus, the central information is visible at a glance, and the findings from it remain in the reader’s or the viewer’s mind.
- A statistic is another option. This can vary depending on the amount of data and time spent varying amounts. It is important that you also publish something in addition to the statistics that capture the findings.
Also, there are other ways to select a suitable medium. It is conceivable to program an online tool that incorporates the knowledge gained. In the above example, one could provide a tool that determines how much rubbish someone produces each year and where you can effectively reduce something.
Step 2: Evaluation of data and content creation
Once you have agreed on a suitable medium and collected the data, it is about putting the selected medium into action. If you have your own editorial office in the house, this will take over the copywriting. It should be noted that it requires a professional layout, which is best created by a graphics agency. Among other things, the following tasks are taken over:
- Graphically enhance data
- Make text appealing
- Insert matching artwork
- Integrate built photos
- Possibly make drawings by an illustrator
The final product should be flawless and in any case high quality. For this reason, it is advisable to have photographs taken by the photographer or purchase high-resolution images on the popular platforms. Also, representations should not be obscured by a lack of resolution or blurred.
Step 3: Find suitable link partners
After much work has gone into creating it, it’s about finding suitable websites that make their content known and linked. When researching the potential link partners, you should follow several quality guidelines. Some of these aspects can be seen directly when looking at a website. Others can only be found out if you work with specific tools.
Determine quality characteristics without tools
At first glance, the layout is crucial. Is this appealing? Can you navigate well? Is the page arranged?
Also, the topic should fit with your product. As a result, the intersection is the largest, and the probability is high that the content of interested parties is clicked.
Another look should be devoted to the imprint. If there is no information, this should exclude this side as a partner.
Also, it is important that a website does not just consist of articles that have a link to a commercial website in each article . If that is the case, it can be assumed that the website is only there to earn money and no attention is paid to quality. A collection of different topics is just as conspicuous and should be avoided.
Collections of banners or affiliate links are another feature that should lead to the exclusion of a website. However, there is nothing wrong with separate, high-quality advertising elements.
A self-explanatory point is the possibility of a publication: Adding a website in a search list, which has no blog area, no magazine or no matching news section, does not make sense. Finally, there must be a section where an article can be published.
The actuality is another important aspect: if the last contribution two years ago has been released, has a blog probably few readers and traffic are you can not generate a product on such a side also.
Determine quality characteristics with tools
In addition to these “external features” of a website, you can look behind the scenes of a page with the help of tools. A good indication of whether a search result fits is provided by the keywords and the visibility of a page. These two points can identify different tools. This article introduces Sistrix.
It is advisable first to check your website at Sistrix. That way, you can see your keyword rankings and, based on those results, you can weigh whether you want to strengthen specific keywords and where the greatest potential lies. Sistrix offers the possibility of issuing so-called “opportunity keywords.” These are considered relevant by the tool and have a good chance (hence the notion) that their respective rankings will improve if, for example, they are strengthened in a post.
Your researched websites are also examined for the keywords. If you notice an intersection between your important keywords and the rankings of the linker, that’s optimal. This will tell you that users are looking for the term “waste prevention” and might come across this entry directly on the first page of search results. This increases the chances that your content fits well with this page and attracts many users.
You can also find out about the already mentioned visibility history with Sistrix. This is displayed as a number, which gives you an initial assessment of the scope and relevance of a page. On the other hand, the tool creates a diagram for each query that shows history.
If history has been falling steeply for a long time, the website should not be included in the shortlist. If the opposite is the case, the website is attracting more and more users. In addition to this history, the tool features Google updates. Google keeps rolling out updates that can affect the curve. This can lead to a decrease or at best an increase.
Step 4: Contact webmaster
Before contacting the webmasters and presenting their content, consider what the key points are:
- Did experts participate?
- Was a survey conducted?
- Were known sources used?
- What information is provided?
If this is prepared in bullet points, contact us. This is best done by phone. So you have a more direct line to each other, and if you first communicate in this way, the following e-mails go down less often. In any case, send your contact person an e-mail following the conversation. So the phone call is freshly remembered, which means that the other party can deal with it directly.
This is not possible on some pages. This happens especially to bloggers who pursue the main activity and operate their blog only in their free time. As a general rule, personal relationships are always good and increase the chances that you will receive an answer to your request.
Now you have to be patient and wait for the feedback. If someone is not interested in your content, ask for the reasons. From the feedback you receive, you can learn about future projects and make it better next time.
